Vox Popoli

Bill defends the President:

Vox, the military tribunal thing was and is tricky. The people we’re holding are not prisoners of war (no uniform, no command structure, and they target civilians) so according to the Geneva convention (which they didn’t sign) we could just shoot them after a proper military trial. However, Bush and co. realized that this would be a PR nightmare.

And after the Lynn Stewart incident (the mother of the Patriot Act), we realize we couldn’t give them a regular trial either. So they came up with the military tribunal thing. What other option did Bush have, turn them over to the Syrians for a trial? This is pretty far outside regular jurisprudence. Clintoons infamous Executive Orders were obviously self-serving, it wasn’t like he was simply trying to solve a problem and protect America’s interests.

This defense is illustrative. Bill suggests that the administration had two legal choices. Shoot them or turn them over to someone else. First, handing them over to a third party can’t be equated to releasing them, as implied here. Neither the Northern Alliance nor the Iraqi allies are reported to be squeamish about rough justice for their enemies.

Second, even this defense demonsrates that the president is more concerned about PR than he is about the law. So, his advisors cook up a stupid and legally questionable scheme, then try to defend it as if their motives are not tawdry politics, but a matter of national defense. Of course, if it was that serious, they’d have been executed in accordance with the Geneva Convention already; the real problem is that it’s difficult to take prisoners once no quarter has been declared. And, it threatens to turn into a PR disaster anyhow. You would think that some day, the Republicans will learn that since the press is not on their side anyhow, they might as well do the right thing and get roasted for it instead of doing the wrong and more dangeous thing and getting roasted for that.

Although others may have done so, I have never stated that Bush is worse than Clinton in his repeated attempts to abuse the legal system, only that his actions are opening the door for the next Clinton to be worse. Bill sounds like a typical leftist here, arguing that it is the intentions behind the attempted abuse that are relevant, whereas it is truly only the precedents being set that matter. The ignoble nature of the present administration was clear in its use of Guantanamo Bay, which, like Echelon, is a shining example of how the Federal government always attempts to circumvent the laws designed expressly to hobble the exercise of its power.

Republican defenders of the president will no doubt continue to excuse his every action, however indefensible, under the guise of “we are at war”. This is nothing new, it has been done on behalf of every wartime administration of either party. But I will have little sympathy when those same Republicans shriek in outrage when the next Democratic president abuses these new techniques for circumventing the limits on executive branch power, conveniently forgetting their own role in creating the monster.

INDC: The primitive paranormal beliefs of moonbats are quite interesting; most seem to have the unshakeable belief that they can channel the will of genocidal dictators. Very strange.

Jeff Goldstein: Um, Hitler would’ve made you into a lampshade, you Gypsy treehumper.

INDC: Commissar, where are you going? Commissar? Commissar?

The Commissar: Must ask why she neglects Stalin.

INDC: Alright, then. At least he’ll blend in.

Ah, yeah. Nothing like watching the freaks come out in daylight. I think my favorite was the apocryphal message of the quote from a classic science fiction novel. It’s inspired me to attend to the Democratic convention wearing a white robe and holding up a sign that says: “Grok the fullness”. If that don’t larn ’em, nothing will.

LIMBAUGH 4.8 SHARE [WABC] SMASHES ‘AIR AMERICA’ 1.7 SHARE [WLIB] IN ALL LISTENERS [12+]… ‘AIR AMERICA’ FADES MONTH TO MONTH: 2.2 SHARE APRIL DEBUT, 1.7 SHARE IN MAY, 1.2 SHARE IN JUNE…

I’d take more pleasure in watching this ongoing car crash if I hadn’t known it was inevitable from the start. It must kill Al Franken inside to know that he’s getting his head handed to him by someone he regards as his inferior. The iron law of supply and demand dictates that all liberal media will be brutally raped in the media every time there is a head-to-head competition. We’ve seen it on a large scale with Fox vs. CNN, we’ve seen it on a small scale with WND vs. Salon and now we’re seeing it play out on the airwaves.

As the Sports Guy says, it’s too bad you can’t bet on these things.

From Inside the Beltway:

The White House cracked down on a popular pair of Los Angeles radio hosts who grew irritated with Homeland Security Undersecretary Asa Hutchison for not cracking down on illegal aliens who’ve flooded southern California.

“John and Ken,” heard over radio station KFI, initially applauded U.S. Border Patrol sweeps in and around Los Angeles that rounded up more than 400 of the estimated 2 million illegal immigrants who cost California taxpayers billions of dollars. But after Mr. Hutchison recently scaled down the sweep — posting the agents closer to the Mexican border — the radio pair broadcasted and posted his telephone number in Washington, causing the White House phone system to be jammed by thousands of calls. The White House has now contacted the duo and demanded they cease and desist such antics.

Antics… such as facilitating the public’s ability to contact the appointed official directly responsible for a policy of which it does not approve. Yes, this is certainly an administration that believes in government by, of, and for the people, isn’t it.

You would think that the fact that thousands of people disapprove of Mr. Hutchison’s change in policy might be taken into account. But the masters always hate it when they can’t rule over their serfs in peace and quiet.

I should also mention that the Zodiac is a Scott Summit design. To see more of his work, visit www.summitid.com. His other PDA credits include the AlphaSmart Dana and 2000, the Stowaway XT keyboard, and the never-released Palm Pilot Razor design that preceded the Palm V.

I’m not in the market for an ebook reader myself, since I need the Dana’s keyboard, but the Zodiac Tapwave would have to be it, if I were. I find it interesting to know that the same guy who designed the excellent Alphasmart Dana also designed the Tapwave. Like the Dana, it has two SD slots, which would allow you to pack in more than 4,000 Palm-format ebooks without touching the device’s system RAM. Now, if they ported the original Wing Commander to it, or MAME, well, I might have to reconsider… it is a gaming platform, after all.

Nice work, Mr. Summit.

On June 29, 2004, at 12:28 p.m., I flew on Northwest Airlines flight #327 from Detroit to Los Angeles with my husband and our young son. Also on our flight were 14 Middle Eastern men between the ages of approximately 20 and 50 years old. What I experienced during that flight has caused me to question whether the United States of America can realistically uphold the civil liberties of every individual, even non-citizens, and protect its citizens from terrorist threats….

As we sat waiting for the plane to finish boarding, we noticed another large group of Middle Eastern men boarding. The first man wore a dark suit and sunglasses. He sat in first class in seat 1A, the seat second-closet to the cockpit door. The other seven men walked into the coach cabin. As aware Americans, my husband and I exchanged glances, and then continued to get comfortable. I noticed some of the other passengers paying attention to the situation as well. As boarding continued, we watched as, one by one, most of the Middle Eastern men made eye contact with each other. They continued to look at each other and nod, as if they were all in agreement about something. I could tell that my husband was beginning to feel anxious.

The take-off was uneventful. But once we were in the air and the seatbelt sign was turned off, the unusual activity began. The man in the yellow T-shirt got out of his seat and went to the lavatory at the front of coach — taking his full McDonald’s bag with him. When he came out of the lavatory he still had the McDonald’s bag, but it was now almost empty. He walked down the aisle to the back of the plane, still holding the bag. When he passed two of the men sitting mid-cabin, he gave a thumbs-up sign. When he returned to his seat, he no longer had the McDonald’s bag.

Then another man from the group stood up and took something from his carry-on in the overhead bin. It was about a foot long and was rolled in cloth. He headed toward the back of the cabin with the object. Five minutes later, several more of the Middle Eastern men began using the forward lavatory consecutively. In the back, several of the men stood up and used the back lavatory consecutively as well.

For the next hour, the men congregated in groups of two and three at the back of the plane for varying periods of time. Meanwhile, in the first class cabin, just a foot or so from the cockpit door, the man with the dark suit – still wearing sunglasses – was also standing. Not one of the flight crew members suggested that any of these men take their seats.

The problem isn’t that the government isn’t going to be able to stop this. The government can never be relied upon to stop anything, except perhaps an amphibious invasion by another nation’s military. The problem is that the Federal government is actively working to prevent the airlines from being able to address the situation themselves.

If we still had free association in the United States, an airline could choose to deny flying anyone it believed posed a risk or even made its passengers feel unsafe. This would certainly be discrimination, and, horror of horrors, I say to you now that there is nothing wrong with discrimination. If the business of Syrians, blacks, homosexuals or Christians is of no interest to one in a free society, free association means that one has the right to decline it. (The injustice of segregation was that it was publicly enforced law, which is another matter altogether.)

This discrimination can be financially suicidal, or it can be absolutely necessary if you want to stay in business. The airlines are already teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, the next series of explosions bringing down several on the same day will finish them off unless they are allowed to do as they see fit in protecting their equipment, their employees, and most importantly, their paying customers.

Ironically, as with 9/11, people will look to the Federal government to solve a problem that its policies will be proven to have created.

UPDATE: An NRO reader writes in:

“Either there is something REALLY bad going on or that article is an urban legend. I just read a very similar story a couple of weeks ago (linked from Instapundit or AndrewSullivan or Boortz, I can’t remember) written by a man travelling with his wife and son. The story wasn’t quite as dramatic as this one but it involved suspicious arab passengers that were “wisked” away by who boarded the plane upon arrival. I can’t remember the exact details of the story but it seems to have all of the ear marks of urban legend-om.”

I don’t know “Annie Jacobsen”, so I can’t testify to the versimilitude of the article, but if it’s a hoax, the details are uncharacteristically accurate. True, she claims that the flight left at 12:28, not 12:22, but I don’t think a six-minute discrepancy casts the entire article in doubt. From NWA.com:

Northwest Airlines 327

Fri, Jul 23

4hr 39min

12:22pm Depart Detroit (DTW)

2:01pm Arrive Los Angeles (LAX)

NRO is madly buzzing about how Kerry’s apparent dismissal of the Lizard Queen is nothing but a stunt designed to create more excitement when she makes a “surprise” speech at the convention. I’m hoping that she’ll tear off her human skin, hiss at the camera and strangle Kerry with her tri-forked tongue before devouring both him and John Edwards live in front of a horrified nation.

The terrified Republicans will have no choice but to send a delegation via submarine to a small island in the Antarctic, where they will perform a shoggoth designed to awake the Deep One who sleeps beneath the ice. When Cthulhu rises, Dick Cheney will be sacrificed to appease the Great Tentacled One and New York City will be demolished by the subsequent epic battle between the demon lizard-bitch and the Elder God.

Why vote for the lesser of two evils? Cthulhu 2004!

I was just thinking, who is the greatest guest host in the history of SNL? Not in terms of who did the best overall show, or which show you would have liked to have been present in the audience – Pamela Anderson, obviously – or who had the best intro bit, but who produced the most memorable quotes that you and your friends still drop on each other today?

I’d say it has to be Christopher Walken. You’ve got “more cowbell”, you’ve got “a degree from the University of Bei-jing”, you’ve got “I got a passport to Florida”, you’ve got “no, don’ go”, and to top it all off, you’ve got the phrase that spawned the worst published poem in history, “my little wide-eyed, white-tailed doe”. I can’t even remember most of them from the census-taker, I was laughing so hard.

You realize that I’m snorting and chuckling helplessly as I’m writing this, of course.

The Gargler gargles:

Vox.. you’re pretty fond of a little saying. “Tell it to the whigs!”. Ah what a battle cry! It summons up images of the possibility of rebellion within the politcal world… Sadly its inaccurate. The Whigs were never anything to be feared, and calling them well organized is simply ignoring history. We’re talking about a party that lasted an astounding 16 years, from 1834 to 1850. That’s the official story anyway, though the initial party coalition actually started in 1824, when some boys got together to try to whip Andy Jackson (Tennessean by the way). I suppose we could give them credit for 26 years then huh?

Nate would have somewhat of a point, if one were so myopic as to reduce world history to American history. I use “tell it to the Whigs” to illustrate the shallow thinking involved in assuming that a two-party system is eternal. First, the very fact of the American Whigs relatively brief political lifespan supports my point, second, the British Whig party was one of the first modern political parties and was part of a now-defunct two-party system with the Tories, or Conservative Party. The remnants of was variously known as the Country, Whig and Liberal Party now survive in the Liberal Democratic Party, but the Liberals were replaced as the primary British opposition by Labour around 1925.

The former chairwoman of the New York State Democratic Party on Wednesday called it “a total outrage” and “very stupid” that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has not been offered a prominent speaking role at the Democratic National Convention.

“It’s a slap in the face, not personally for Hillary Clinton, but for every woman in the Democratic Party and every woman in America,” said Judith Hope, a major party fund-raiser.

I could almost kiss John Kerry. Sure, he’s a loathesome, treasonous socialist creep, but no one who uses his moment in the sun to publicly bitchslap the Lizard Queen can be ALL bad.